Sartre's The Wall

[white camellia]

I've recently finished reading Sartre's short story The Wall but the last sentence just lingers. I tried hard to understand the complexity of that emotion which should have reflected an important theme of Sartre's philosophical perspectives. Confronted with the death, Pablo chose to defend the cause of Spain but disvalued it. With fear of something nameless (one thinks of what the nameless thing could be) but not death itself, he awaited his life to be finished against the wall. He looked at this decision, even amused by his seemingly comic obstinateness. Is this gaiety a bitter aftertaste of this choice, a choice that he had to make as being responsible for all the work he had done before, or simply proud of himself? He laughed so hard that he cried when his phony peaching against Gris turned out to be the very truth accidentally, I see this as the outburst of despair as he realized how helpless he was to his own decision! So anyone could better enlighten me on this unnamable laugh and cry, or just share with us your thoughts about this fiction as well as the author's philosophical themes?

[Jean-Baptiste]

I may be wrong, but I think this is the exact story that I've been looking for for a while. I read it, and then completely forgot the title. Does it involve spending the night in prison with other prisoners and a doctor/guard, awaiting execution in the morning? If so, I was struck by the implications of the ending, as he had gained the knowledge that a person cannot possibly live (or wish to live) after so completely accepting the immanence of death.

[white camellia]

Yes, Jean, in this story, the narrator, Pablo Ibbieta and a fat man, Tom Steinbock and a terrified kid, Juan Mirbal were imprisoned in the same cell, a cold hospital cellar, waiting for the execution at dawn, with two sleepy guards and a blonde doctor who was authorized to be here as if he could relieve the pain of these dying prisoners--his presence was nothing but an irrelevant farce under the disguise of mercy. I also think that Pablo had accepted the immanence of death as his desire for life died and he recalled his life which was only a lie worth nothing. But a fatal change at his last moments brought him a chance to live again. he may then laugh the dichotomy of his body and mind, assuming that he was already dead.